Of Miracles and Interventions

The Miracles of Globalization

By the early 1980s, a number of distinguished economists had amassed compelling evidence that outward-oriented trade policies were far more likely than protectionism to lead to economic growth. The evidence was contained in two multi-country research projects-one at the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), led by Ian Little and others, and the other at the National Bure...

Behavior and Miracles

Neoclassical Miracles

We study the dynamic behavior of a Neoclassical growth model with finite lifetimes and imperfect altruism in which individuals can accumulate both physical and human capital. We use the model to better understand and explain the behavior of economic miracles. Our results suggest that standard Neoclassical forces can account for the performance of the miracle economies and can explain the protra...

Aging: miRacles of Longevity?

The inventory of processes that miRNAs regulate has continued to expand since their relatively recent discovery. A new study reveals not only that the expression of miRNAs changes with age, but also that these miRNAs can act in both pro- and anti-longevity regulatory pathways.

Miracles: metaphysics, physics, and physicalism

Debates about the metaphysical compatibility between miracles and natural laws often appear to prejudge the issue by either adopting or rejecting a strong physicalist thesis (the idea that the physical is all that exists). The operative component of physicalism is a causal closure principle: that every caused event is a physically caused event. If physicalism and this strong causal closure prin...